At Columbia College and the Pulitzer School of Journalism,
one of the people a couple of years ahead of me or just back
of me in a whole galaxy of future greats was Sokolsky--along
with Corey Ford and Dick Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein and
Morris Rysking and Howard Dietz and Richard Simon. Sokolsky
was almost kicked out of Columbia because he was a flaming
radical, believe it or not. He looked like all of the pictures
you see of anarchists. You expected to see a bomb in his hand.
He started a magazine up there--I think it was called Dynamite--
and almost got kicked out because of its revolutionary contents.

When he got out of Journalism School, however, Sokolsky
found his way to China where, as we tell it, one night he met
the National Association of Manufacturers. He came back from
China a flaming reactionary. All the rest of his life. Sokolsky
was a famous columnist for the Hearst papers and a black re-
actionary...way over on the conservative side. It was an
astonishing transformation.

Q:

How did he become friendly with you?

Cerf:

When he was at Columbia he was very poor. I didn't think
that he got enough to eat. He was really a ragged fellow. I
took him home several times just to give him a square meal. I
remember that my mother used to rage when I'd bring in this
dirty boy. But he was brilliant and interesting to listen to.
It was rewarding to feed him! He never forgot this.